Opinion polls point to Howard defeat

A GALAXY poll for the Sunday Telegraph revealed that Mr Howard has been losing support over the last six months to Maxine McKew in his own seat of Bennelong.

Former national broadcaster and journalist Maxine McKew, standing for Labor has 52 per cent of the preferred vote, compared to 48 per cent for Mr Howard.

The poll, based on a large sample of 800 voters interviewed on Wednesday and Thursday nights last week, reveals primary support for Mr Howard at 46 per cent – a slight increase in his support since August, but still almost four percentage points below his vote at the last federal election.

Other opinion polls that show him trailing Kevin Rudd’s Labor Party by 12 percentage points after 11 years in power. The 68-year-old Howard, Australia’s second-longest serving leader, will campaign on his record of overseeing an economic expansion that’s pushed the jobless rate to a 33-year low, while portraying Rudd, a former diplomat who was elected Labor Party leader less than a year ago, as too inexperienced to replace him.“This country doesn’t need new leadership.

It doesn’t need old leadership. It needs the right leadership,” Howard said. “Love me or loathe me, the Australian people know where I stand on all the major issues.’’